Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Other bits and bobs

Normal-sized ladies

Yesterday I popped round to see Ann and Katy to thank them again for their splendid support at the coffee morning and found them having a coffee break.

I must point out, however, that Katy is a devil-child as she baked the most delicious shortbread I have ever tasted. It was so moreish that I found myself snaffling 3 pieces before I put a stop to my gluttony. If I lived with her I would end up the size of a house in no time!

Thanks ladies, you rock!

2 lovely ladies (now normal sized!)

Esther

It's hard being big-boned and a hefty breed, especially when you are prone to laminitis, as is the pretty Esther. I keep a close watch on her weight, not just by eye but using a weight tape. Her front feet are feeling a bit hot and she has arthritis in her near-side fetlock so I really need to restrict her grazing to the bare minimum in an attempt to keep her weight down, even though she isn't overweight at the moment.

She hates it when Kizzy disappears from view when she's shut in the field shelter so I thought we'd try her with a grazing muzzle.

It looks like a gas mask mum!

Hey, I can't eat much grass with this on.....

I'll try eating trees then!

Ducklings and other duck business

We hadn't had any duckling on the pond nearest the house this season so I was very pleased when Mrs Duck brought these little beauties to see us before taking them off to the pond. There had been plenty of attempts as the ducks had been busy doing their business but we'd found lots of empty, broken eggs around which the magpies and crows must have stolen.

What's unusual about the first photo is that Mr Duck is with them. Usually it's just the mummy duck and babies but I suspect he might have been allowed along to protect them. She was very wary and alert, more so than usual, and on the look-put for danger all the time so it made me wonder if she'd had her previous clutches of eggs, or even her tiny ducklings, stolen.

Meet the family

After they'd had their fill of corn they headed off to the pond where I watched them chasing around catching midges.

Awwwwh!

For several days they all came up to see us 3 times a day but then one day they didn't come up until early evening and sadly they weren't all there. She'd lost 2 of her babies and of the 2 remaining one of them had a damaged leg and was hopping along - it was the 3rd one from Mrs Duck and he's much smaller than the others so it's amazing he survived.

As the tiny one was injured we weren't hopeful that he would survive for long but amazingly he's still with us 5 days later so I'm keeping my fingers crossed he makes it.

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About Me

I enjoy many crafts including knitting and crochet but I also love running which I use to raise money for Alzheimer's Research UK in memory of my mum (please read her story below to see why it is so important to me). So far I've raised over £50,000 towards research into this devastating disease.
I ran my first marathon in 2004 at the age of 48. In 2007 I celebrated my 50th birthday by running a series of 5 marathons and 2 ultras. I wanted to do something special at the London marathon to get publicity for ARUK - a friend remarked that I should "act my age and stay at home with my knitting!" So I took my knitting with me to became the first person to knit whilst running a marathon and set the Guinness World Record for "The longest Scarf Knitted Whilst Running a Marathon"! I was also the first person to crochet whilst running a marathon. I have now run 120 marathons (4 whilst knitting, 2 whilst crocheting to set the GWR for "Longest crochet chain whilst running a marathon"). I achieved my 100th marathon 7 months before my 60th birthday in 2017 and also completed 52 marathons in 52 weeks in the process.

Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.